1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information processing using a use history relating to an item of a user and, more particularly, to an information processing method and an information processing device to perform information processing relating to a point, a terminal device connected to the information processing device, a display method in the terminal device, and an information processing program in an information processing device and a terminal device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, thanks to the development of the digital technology and network technology, the chances to distribute or sell items, such as digital contents and goods, using a network. Accompanying this, the needs for the technology to select and provide information of an item with which a user is highly likely to be interested from among a number of items are increasing.
Further, the so-called point service is performed widely, in which when a user purchases a product, a point is given according to the purchase price or the number of times of purchase and at the time of next purchase, a discount is allowed according to the point. Then, the technology combining provision of information about an item and the point service is also proposed. For example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 2002-288503) discloses technology to promote the use of an item by giving a point to a user who has given advice about a product to another user. Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 2007-200099) discloses technology to give a point to a user similar to a target user according to the number of times that the target user selects the item recommended by the user similar to the target user.
As the conventional technology described above, in the system in which a point is given to an information providing user when another user purchases an item according to the information provided by the information providing user, it can be expected that provision of information from users is promoted. Further, it is difficult for an information providing user to predict the timing at which a point is given, and therefore, it is possible to give a user a bigger element of surprise or a certain kind of emotion compared to the normal point system in which a user who purchases acquires a point. Then, each user is likely to feel like checking whether his/her point has increased, and therefore, there may be a case where the frequency of accesses to the site increases.
However, in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 described above, the relationship between a user who provides information and a user who uses an item according to the information is one-to-one, and therefore, there used to be such a problem that users given a point actually are limited to a small part of users or the frequency with which a point increases is low. That is, when a user B uses an item based on information provided by a user A, the point of the user A increases once, but the points of most of other users are not changed at all. Because of this, even if a user frequently accesses a site in expectation of an increase in his/her point, it is only temporarily because the point does not increase and finally, there is a case where the frequency of accesses is reduced. For example, immediately after a user becomes a member of a point service, the user frequently accesses the site to check whether his/her point has increased, but, if the point does not increase for a long time, there is a case where the user loses the interest in the site or items.